PJ Germain is a certified webmaster, SEO expert and digital marketing. He began building websites over 20 years ago and has helped 100s of clients attain online success with state-of-the-art web development and dynamic SEO strategies. He is the owner of Magnum Marketing http://magnummarketing.org/ , LLC and Pure Residuals https://pureresiduals.com/
Hey! Before we start, could you quickly tell us about yourself and briefly describe your career path so far?
Sure! I became a certified webmaster years ago. I actually learned HTML before there were any HTML editors! Later, I discovered the power of SEO and how to drive traffic to any website. This enabled me to begin living the digital lifestyle and earn a nice income from my laptop.
How did you get introduced to digital marketing, more specifically SEO?
Once I became well adept at building websites, the next logical step was traffic. Premiere virtual real estate can make a huge impact for any business, but if no one sees it, what’s it really worth? SEO can make or break a business. So, I learned everything I could about SEO.
What were your initial thoughts and planning before starting your own company? Was it for you to find new clients for your company when it started?
In the beginning, I simply wanted to help my website clients earn more revenue. I knew SEO was the answer and I grew a passion for ranking keywords for my clients. So, I began doing SEO for my websites and then began using that knowledge to help my clients’ bottom line. If I made money, they made money. It’s a win-win situation.
How difficult was it for you to find new clients for your company when it started and what was your revenue for the first year?
Ah, the initial clients were the toughest for sure. Of course, I began with local SEO and did some in-person networking while our site was first built. Then, referrals came and our portfolio grew to a respectable presentation. Now, we do some PPC in addition to SEO on our own website.
What was that one campaign/strategy/event that did wonders for your brand? In other words what helped you kick start your revenue growth?
Well, in the beginning, I received a lot of business from referrals. But, later, social media began to take off in a huge way. We took advantage of that and this really kick-started our revenue. Everyone is on the social media bandwagon and it continues to be a major factor in growth.
How does your team convince a new user to opt for your services over your competitors? How are your services better than your competitors?
We typically are proud to show new clients our previous SEO successes. We get very competitive about ranking high volume keywords for our clients. We celebrate our successes and we’re happy to show them off.
When it comes to SEO issues of your site who is your go-to person in this industry for advice?
We’ve studied many of the greats such as Neil Patel and Brian Dean. We implement many of their strategies and developed our own from their guidance.
Even after multiple years of experience in this industry, what challenges do you still face and how do you handle them?
The old days of building a few backlinks here and there and ranking a website are gone. As the Google algorithm is constantly changing, so does SEO. Keeping up with the changes and developing multi-faceted strategies is the constant challenge.
What’s the most often faced challenges as an agency – Clients lack SEO knowledge or Costing?
Without a doubt, the client’s lack of SEO knowledge. Being able to convey the power of SEO in layman’s terms is key. You have to hone your skills on how to convey how proper SEO can explode a business. Many of our new clients realize they need an online presence, but have no idea the time and effort involved in keyword research and search engine ranking. Being able to showcase studies and past statistical data can certainly help convey the message and justify the SEO budget.
How often does your team perform a complete SEO audit for your clients to find hidden issues?
Typically, we like to do this on a monthly schedule. This shows our clients how the keywords are ranking and we correlate this with traffic stats. We feel it’s also another way to stay in touch and keep our business relationship on their radar.